Day’s Worst: Investigating Colorado College students for in-flight Harlem Shake

We would hope the Federal Aviation Administration would have something better to do than investigate Colorado College students for getting a plane full of passengers on their feet to do the Harlem Shake on a flight to San Diego.

But alas, it appears not.

To be clear, the seat belt sign was off and a video recording of the dance episode shows nothing more than passengers on the Frontier flight on their feet and shaking and wiggling for a few seconds. It’s funny, actually.

According to 7News, the dance was led by members of Colorado College’s ultimate frisbee team. The TV news outfit confirmed the FAA was investigating.

A Frontier Airlines representative said this about the incident: “All safety measures were followed and the seat belt sign was off,” said spokeswoman Kate O’Malley. In addition, one of the students behind the dance-moment asked the flight crew ahead of time if it was all right.

Matt Zelin, sophomore who filmed the dance and who is a member of CC’s frisbee team, said this, according to The Catalyst, a Colorado College school newspaper: “I don’t see there being any reason why this should cause any trouble. We asked the staff and they said it was safe.”

“They are still looking into it, it’s still open,” Tony Molinero, a spokesman for the FAA said this week, according to The Catalyst. “…I don’t know where the [investigators] were told about it, but when they saw the video they just decided to look into it because it is better to be safe than sorry.”

It seems like a bit of innocent fun and we would hope the FAA would adhere to this rule in examining the incident: No harm, no foul.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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